Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course, apart from a curiosity to learn and to challenge assumptions. Participants are welcome from different disciplines and professional fields.
Course Outline
This course explores the theory and practice of case study as a research approach for understanding and evaluating the complexity and dynamics of innovative programmes and organisations. The course is designed to be useful for those who wish to commission or conduct case study research to inform policy decisions or professional practice. The course will be workshop- and seminar-based. Participants will be encouraged to share potential case study designs and field work dilemmas throughout the course. Topics to be covered include:
Monday: Evolution and Concept of Case Study Research. Participants' understandings of case study research and expectations. Reasons for emergence as a major form of research inquiry in education and related professional fields. Justification for the approach - the kind of knowledge it generates compared with other research approaches - and methodologies employed. Different types and purposes - evaluation, theory led/generated, ethnographic. Strengths and limitations.
Tuesday: Planning and Designing Case Study Research. Defining and selecting the case/s, concept and boundaries. Emergent design. Research questions/foreshadowed issues. Methods of data collection - interviewing, observation, document analysis. Sampling choices within methods. Selecting methods in relation to preferred ways of knowing. Use of theory or theoretical framework. Gaining access.
Wednesday: Relationships in the Field. Choice of researcher role - impartial observer, documentarist, teller of stories. Ethics for gaining access to and release of data - confidentiality, anonymity, pre-publication access. Principles and procedures of democratic case study. Ethical dilemmas in the politics of "real life" cases. Managing field relations. Reflexivity of the researcher.
Thursday: Making Sense. Strategies for analysing and interpreting. Reducing or transforming data. Formal analysis - coding/categorising, progressive focusing, concept mapping, grounded theory. Artistic interpretations - narrative/poetic forms. Validity (internal/external), credibility, authenticity. Strategies for enhancing validity: triangulation, respondent validation, metaphors of crystal/prism. Generalising - crosscase, process, concept, naturalistic, situated, and in-depth particularisation.
Friday: Reporting and Communicating Case Study Research. Forms of reporting - formal, portrayal, conclusion-led, artistic. Appropriateness for purpose. Utility in policymaking. Inspirations for improving writing - literary, biographic, documentary journalism. Re-presenting or fictionalising. Beyond the written form.
References
The following texts, while not required preliminary reading, offer an introduction to the issues and content to be covered. Further materials and readings will be provided in the course itself.
Simons, H. (2009) Case Study Research in Practice. London: Sage.
Simons, H. (1996) The Paradox of Case Study, Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(2):225-240.
